Suspected ISIS operative Mohammad Sirajuddin (30), an Mtech, and alleged ISIS recruiter Afsha Jabeen alias Nicole alias Nicky Joseph (38), a graduate, knew each other through online activities and were part of the same group of indoctrinators, a highly placed source in the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) said. The source, however, added that maulana Hafij Mujib (26), arrested in November by Maharashtra ATS, is not part of the same ISIS group and belonged to another group of indoctrinators.
A team of the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) is in Rajasthan and is interrogating Sirajuddin along with officials from the Rajasthan ATS. The ATS is questioning him about his links with other Indians in the country who he was trying to indoctrinate. It is not clear yet if he managed to indoctrinate more youngsters like the 16-year-old girl from Pune. However, one thing made clear by sources was that Sirajuddin and Jabeen belong to the same group of indoctrinators.
Sirajuddin was working as a marketing manager of the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) in Jaipur. He hails from Gulbarga in Karnataka. Just like Sirajuddin, Jabeen was using Facebook to spread the propaganda of ISIS and recruit youngsters. The duo made several personal groups on Facebook using fictitious names to spread propaganda. Jabeen had radicalised Salman Mohiuddin who had started visiting ISIS websites and had started spreading the cause of ISIS.
Jabeen was arrested by Hyderabad police in September this year after she was deported from Abu Dhabi and landed by flight in Shamshabad. She said to have recruited Mohiuddin in ISIS, who was arrested earlier this year. Jabeen’s family comprises her husband Devendra Batra alias Mustafa and three daughters. She lives in Tolichowki in Hyderabad.
On the other hand, the maulana arrested from Pusad town in Yeotmal had plans of sending youngster Abdul Malik to Afghanistan to get ‘Al Qaeda level’ training. Malik was arrested for stabbing a constable. The maulana was also in touch with Shoeb alias Tariq Bhai (24) from Hingoli, who was out on bail after being arrested by Hyderabad police last year allegedly because he was a sympathiser of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India.
